A spiral wound membrane element is made by wrapping one or more membrane leaves and feed spacer sheets around a perforated central tube. The leaves have a permeate carrier sheet placed between two generally rectangular membrane sheets.
The membrane sheets are sealed together along three edges. The fourth edge of the leaf is open and abuts the central tube. One or more layers of permeate carrier sheet may also be wrapped around the central tube to support the membrane leaf over the perforations in the central tube and to provide a flow path between the edge of the leaf and the central tube. Product water, also called permeate, passes through the membrane sheets and then flows through the permeate carrier sheet to reach the central tube. US Patent Application Publication Number 2007/0068864 describes one example of a spiral wound membrane element.
The permeate carrier sheet may be a tricot fabric woven from epoxy or Melamine-coated polyester filaments. The tricot fabric is porous and forms a series of parallel ridges, which keep the membrane leaf from collapsing, separated by grooves on one side of the fabric. The grooves are oriented perpendicular to the central tube to provide less obstructed passages for permeate to flow inwards through the leaves to the central tube. A separate reinforcing or anti-bagging layer, made for example of felt or another non-woven or otherwise porous sheet material, may be placed between the membrane sheet and the tricot fabric to help keep the membrane sheet from being pressed into the grooves of the tricot.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,656,362 discloses various dimensions and materials for a permeate carrier sheet and reinforcing sheets that may be used with a high pressure spiral wound membrane. International Publication Number WO 03/101575 discloses permeate carrier materials intended to have low resistance to flow. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,802,982 and 7,048,855 describe permeate carrier materials that are directly bonded to a membrane sheet. US Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0195164 A1 describes a spiral wound membrane element in which a) the total area of perforations in the central tube multiplied by the percentage of openings of one layer of a permeate carrier wrapped around the central tube is at least as much as b) the inner cross-sectional area of the central tube.